About the Author
Though a college dropped out, F. Sionil Jose, in real life called Francisco Sionil Jose is one of the living legends of Philippine literature. He has contributed lots of masterpieces, some hailed in other countries in Asia including countries in the west such as United States of America.
F. Sionil José is one of the most widely-read Filipino writers in the English language. F. Sionil José was born on December 3, 1924 in Rosales, Pangasinan, the setting of many of his stories. He was introduced to literature in public school and later attended the University of Santo Tomas after World War II, but dropped out and plunged into writing and journalism in Manila. He started journalism in the forties and was for ten years a staff of the old Manila Times ‘til 1960. His essays on agrarian reform and on social issues won him numerous awards.
His novels and short stories depict the social underpinnings of class struggles and colonialism in Filipino society. José's works - written in English - have been translated into 22 languages, including Korean, Indonesian, Russian, Latvian, Ukrainian and Dutch (Jose, Sense of the City: Manila, 2003).
He has been awarded numerous fellowships and awards, most notable being the 1980 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts, the most prestigious award of its kind in Asia, and most recently, and the 2004 Pablo Neruda Centennial Award from Chile.
Jose lives and works in Manila where with his wife Teresita and a faithful staff he still runs the Solidardad Publishing House and the Solidarity Bookstore, still considered the best little bookstore in Asia. On occassion he leaves Manila for Japan, US, or Europe, where he finds the peace to write or teach (www.arts-interests.com).
“Daya, after all, was hemmed in to the east by the sea, vast and mysterious, and to the west, this mighty river, for beyond it was forest and mountain, land of the Laga Laud, the ancient and indomitable enemy of his people.” It was during the Pre-Hispanic Era when the Story of Waywaya was set. According to the citation above, there are two rival lands, the west and the east in which the protagonist lives and has a part of what they so called, in the story, the royal family. The west was called the Land of Laga Laud while the east is Daya. The citation below is from the very writing of Jose as he discusses a topic. The article is entitled, “Mayabang, Overacting and Baroque – What are We?”“I wrote a story called Waywaya. In my native Ilokano, waywaya means freedom. The setting is pre-Hispanic. Two scholars read the manuscript; our cultural anthropologist, F. Landa Jocano, told me to remove the flowers on the heroine’s hair – that is Polynesian. The historian, William Henry Scott, told me to change her brass bangles into gold – there was plenty of the metal in the islands then. He added that the Chinese traders bartered iron rims for their chariot wheels, pearls, cotton. Indeed, the Newberry Library in Chicago has the earliest record of my people as drawn by a Chinese artist. It shows our women wearing necklaces, bracelets, fine clothes, even shoes. When the Spaniards came in 1521 in search of gold and spices, they chanced upon a disparate people waging war on each other. The divisiveness continues to this very day. At the time, royal lineages, well ordered bureaucracies and sophisticated cultures already existed in continental Asia, in Japan (Jose, Hindsight, 2004).” Ilocano tribe’s culture is featured in the story of Waywaya. During the pre-Hispanic period, tribal wars were eminent. Invasions by groups with superior weapons and a number of men drove these natives into the mountains wherein they still thrive until today. People from the neighboring provinces as well as from other countries reach the province through business activities or trading. Intermarriage was also a factor for the growing number of Tagalogs, Visayanos, Bicolanos, Pampagueños, Chinese and Bombays. Summary of the Story Dayaw was among the “sovereign family” who governs the land of Daya. This land is situated into the east where the sea is also located. A mighty river divided the entire setting into two lands. The inhabitants of these two lands, Dayas and Lauds, are long-time enemies and a rule is devised that whosoever crosses the river will be killed at once. Dayaw is a man of adventure and fine thoughts. Once, he wandered through the forest and also beyond the river out of curiosity. He lasted there for three nights and in the morning of the fourth day, after he had gone to sleep, he saw “a girl lovely as morning and just as fair”. He captured her and had her as his slave. He paraded her in their land and the tribesmen mock at her because of the fact that she is from Laud. The girl was named Waywaya. She now resides at Daya’s house and does household chores. In the long run, though Daya has a girl named Liwliwa who spent nights with him, he pursues for Waywaya. Because of Waywaya’s radiant beauty and kindness, Daya falls for her and they had a child. Ulo and Pintas, the father and mother of Dayaw, doesn’t like Waywaya because she’s a slave and an enemy (they preferred Liwliwa). But with all of these hindrances, she bore a child and in delivering him, she unfortunately died. With the death of his love, Dayaw decides to bring the body of Waywaya to Laud. He wants her to have a decent burial in her own land. After all the lamentations, Dayaw then crosses the river. He is afraid but he is glad; he knows what will happen to him.Cultural Approach Ilocanos’ culture is the environment where the story of Waywaya has enacted. Dayaw, Parbangon, Waywaya and all of the characters in the short story belong to the Ilocano tribe. The setting also proves that, indeed, the story has the framework of Ilocano tribe.The Ilocano people are indigenous to coastal areas of northern Luzon in the Philippines. Today, the Ilocanos are the dominant ethnic group in northern Luzon, and their language (Ilocano) has become the lingua franca of the region, as Ilocano traders provide highland peoples with their primary link to the commerce of the outside world (Ilocanos, 1999). Ilocandia is the term given to the traditional homeland of the Ilocano people; present-day Ilocandia roughly encompasses regions 1 through 3 of the Philippines (the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, and parts of Central Luzon), as well as the Cordillera Administrative Region.The following are the cultural strains found within the story:They practice circumcision. Such practice is done to boys of any age but preferably boys of near puberty or younger. A healer does this kind of process. Here follows a citation from the short story:“There, on the sandy bank, behind the tall reeds that had flowered with plumes of dazzling white, they lined up, squatting while the healer sharpened his knife and prepared a strange mixture of tobacco and weeds with which he treated their wounds after he had circumcised them.” There is also a ritual or practice wherein the boys of the tribe should undergo in order for them to be acknowledged as a man.“He was no weakling, but while the other youths practiced the arts of war and exercised for the great leap that would transform them into men, he played with his kutibeng and took pleasure in composing new songs.”“They lined up the young men who would now be warriors, and one by one, they leaped across the chasm of fire.” When going out to the wild, they have some practice to follow.“He had made the crossing at night after he had blackened his face and body with soot, carrying with him nothing but a coil of maguey twine and his long knife, he had dashed from the cover of reeds near the river's bank…” The tribeswomen have tattoos and wear sack dresses, sandals and bangles of gold. It is apparent at Waywaya when she was first seen by Daya.“A fine, blue tattoo of flower designs ran in a hin line down her arms to her wrists.”“She knelt down before the rim of the pool and gazed at her reflection there, then stood up, untied the knot of her blue sack dress on her shoulder and let it slip down to her feet.”“With her sandals, her bangles of gold, she was no simple peasant; she must come from the upper class of Laud” Those garments and accessories which Waywaya wears prove that she is from the upper class of the Lauds. It also denotes that there are also social class in their tribe. If a tribesman captures an enemy, like what happened to Dayaw and Waywaya, the following customs are to happen and in which the procedure goes:“His first impulse was to do what was customary, to strip her, parade her through the town and humiliate her. The swelling of her jaw was subsided and its place was a dark bruise. Her wrists had bled when the twine was cut. But he did not undress her; he merely tied her wrist again, this time loosely, and then marched her in town.” The duties of a slave are to clean the pots, arrange the firewood rack and etc… here is a citation:“and while the slave girl washed the pots outside, she closed the bamboo door and welcomed him in the way he had expected it. When he woke up, Liwliwa had gone his slave was in the room, fanning with him a small palm leaf. He showed her where she should sleep, a corner of the kitchen, among the fish traps and cooking pots, and told her what her chores would be, from sunup to sundown.” The tribeswoman use coconut oil for their hair. “Her hair was glossy with coconut oil..” Ilocanos cooking is simple and requires minimal preparation time. It is also healthy, making use of lots of vegetables, usually boiled. Some of the more popular dishes are pinakbet, inabraw and dinengdeng. The tribesmen as to the short story eat as what cited next;“Liwliwa came shortly after noon with a bowl of eggplants, and bitter melons cooked with tomatoes, onions and dried fish, and a pot of rice.” A tribe must also have a leader and for the tribe of Daya, the father of Dayaw reigns as their leader. The following citation presents how the tribesmen looks at their leader. “Still, he was the Ulo, the repository of wisdom and strength until that time when someone braver, stronger and wiser would lead them to battle.” They believe in gods. They call them “Apo”.“O Apo Langit, O Apo Daga – all of you who shape the course of time and the destiny of men, what wrong has she done?”““It was Apo Langit that brought me there, that brought you there. It was Apo Langit that made you my slave.””“for while Apo Bufan showed the way, it would also reveal him to whoever watched the river.” Ilocanos are known for their industries, such as tobacco, burnay (jars), bagoong (fish/shrimp sauce), basi and tapuy (rice wine), and weaving. They barter it to the Chinese merchants with knives, gongs, beads and plates.“However, after the Narrow Eye had loaded the tobacco and the rice in exchange for knives, plates and beads, they would leave and he would not even tarry to ask that they take him.” They like to sing and recite poems. They use an instrument called kutibeng to accompany them.“…he played with his kutibeng and took pleasure in composing new songs…” ““I like to sing. I make my own songs. Listen.” He quickly formed the lines and gave a tune to them: “The river is deep But we can ford it. Who will make the bridge? Perhaps love will do it. Perhaps time will prove it…””They practice burial. When Waywaya died, Dayaw left his village and went to Laud together Parbangon to honor her. Even before they entered the village, people of Laud appeared from everywhere. There were wailing and such grief emanated from the household. “All around them the huge pine splinter torches had been ignited and they cast a red glow over the crowd; it was time to do the final ceremony and they rose – just him and her family, and they formed a small procession to the side of the mountain where the hole had already been dug. They let him shove her coffin within the; they pushed a boulder at the entrance to the burial place and covered it with earth. Waywaya’s mother planted before it a few strands of ramos – they would grow, tall and purple.”They are characterized as being hardworking and frugal, and they engage primarily in farming and fishing. The Ilocano culture represents very simple, sometimes Spartan day-to-day living, focusing mostly on work and productivity, spending only on necessities and not on so much on ostentatious material possessions. Ilocanos also exemplify a great degree of respect and humility in their everyday dealings (www.wikipedia.com). The Ilocano culture greatly influenced the short story of F. Sionil Jose, Waywaya, as their culture is well-crafted on it.
Works Cited:(1999). Ilocanos. In Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cultures. The Gale Group, Inc.Jose, F. S. (2004, January 18). Hindsight. The Philippine Star .Jose, F. S. (2003, July 30). Sense of the City: Manila. Retrieved July 10, 2011, from BBC.co.uk.www.arts-interests.comwww.wikipedia.com/fsioniljose
